03 June, 2013

Two Years Later, ABC News No More Economically Developed

Some students (we're all students of life, I'd hope) are tougher cases than others. It's been more than two years since my last post and David Muir and team at ABC News continue bravely reporting on the prosperity created by shrinking the size of our economic world (and helping get this message to those least equipped to question it). They even had the breathtaking vapidity to travel to Mexico and promote "Made in America"--no mention of why Mexicans should root for "Made in America" rather than, I don't know, "Made in Mexico." In tonight's edition, one can even hear a faint paean to inefficiency when Mr. Muir concludes his piece (about Winnebagos made in Iowa) with:

"...And a number we love: for every one of those Winnebagos, it takes on average 165 of those dedicated workers to get it on the road..."

My question about this is: what is it about that number that David Muir and his colleagues so adore? Presumably, it's not that it's small. Would it be a bad thing, then, if through innovation that number were trimmed to 150? 125? 100? What if the very same Winnebago could be made in the same amount of time, at no greater (and probably lower) cost, by just 50 dedicated Hawkeye State workers--perhaps 50 Jack Rebneys? Would that be a net positive for the company? Iowa? The country? Humanity? Would Diane chime in about what "great news" such ingenuity is?

Forgive me if I find an appreciation of the benefits of doing more with less to be inconsistent with the tenor of the reporting coming out of ABC America World News. Would that it were "great news" issuing from the dedicated workers at "Made in America." I hope it doesn't take 165 of them to stitch that segment together.

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Power

"The disposition of mankind, whether as rulers or as fellow-citizens, to impose their own opinions and inclinations as a rule of conduct on others, is so energetically supported by some of the best and by some of the worst feelings incident to human nature, that it is hardly ever kept under restraint by anything but want of power; and as the power is not declining, but growing, unless a strong barrier of moral conviction can be raised against the mischief, we must expect, in the present circumstances of the world, to see it increase."John Stuart Mill, On Liberty, 1859